At 33, Gulluni is the youngest to ever take the top law enforcement spot in this county.

He made emotional rounds at Samuel's in the Hall of Fame, where family and supporters gathered to congratulate him in the wake of a double-digit win over three Democratic opponents. With just 66 percent of the votes in, Gulluni was ahead of second-comer Brett Vottero by 19 points.

"I'm tremendously excited. The first thing that comes to mind is gratitude. I'd like to thank the voters, primarily, who had the confidence in me to put me in office. But I'd never be here without family and the people here who have believed in me from the beginning," Gulluni said, describing the victory party as "surreal."

Gulluni's parents, Frank and Mary, were there to mark his victory, along with hundreds of political supporters.

The race was one of the most closely watched by politicos in the region.

An increasingly jubilant buzz intensified in a banquet room at Samuel's after 8 p.m. when the polls closed. Numbers began trickling in; Gulluni took an early lead and held on to it. More revelers streamed in as success seemed certain.

The four opponents - Gulluni, Holyoke attorney Shawn Allyn, Longmeadow lawyer Hal Etkin and Vottero - struggled to campaign in a fund-raising base stretched thin by a crowded Democratic ballot. They cobbled together war chests that barely reached six figures through personal loans and small, intense clusters of support.

Allyn, a Holyoke defense attorney, was dogged by a nagging controversy late in the race after former Hampden District Court Judge Mary Hurley publicly condemned Allyn over a decision by a judge in Westfield District Court published earlier this year. The ruling questioned Allyn's ethics in a motor vehicle homicide case in which he represented various members of the same family in civil and criminal actions. Allyn rejected the Westfield judge's opinion and accused Hurley of political maneuvering, even crafting television counterattack ads around the issue.

Etkin, once an assistant prosecutor and head of the Springfield Police Academy, has been in private practice for the past 20 years. While he began the race with the largest war chest thanks to a personal loan, he failed to gain significant traction as the contest wore on.

Vottero, a 30-plus-year prosecutor, had the most seasoned resume of the bunch. But, he was hobbled, at least in inner circles, by a widespread perception of being aloof at best and mean-spirited at worst. Head-and-shoulders above his opponents on experience, Vottero began addressing the temperament issue head-on later in the race, but it seemed too steep a hill to climb.

"I'd thought we'd won," Vottero told his supporters of his sense of the race while the polls were still open, during a concession speech at UNO'S downtown, just across the parking lot from Gulluni's fete.

Allyn visited Gulluni's party to congratulate him around 10 p.m.

"He's the district attorney and I'm going to support the district attorney," Allyn said during a concession speech at the Log Cabin in Holyoke earlier. "If there's anything I can do to assist him, I will."

Vottero was the only candidate to have run for the office before. Vottero ran for the office in the 2010 Democratic primary but was beaten by then-state Sen. Stephen Buoniconti, who was ultimately trounced in the general election by Mark Mastroianni.

Mastroianni was appointed by the U.S. Senate as a federal judge near the end of his first term, leaving the seat open for only the fourth time in 60 years.

Gulluni, an Assistant Hampden County District Attorney, was considered a long shot when he announced, given that, at 33, he is by far the youngest in the field. The other candidates, particularly Vottero, tried to target his relative inexperience as an Achilles heel. However, Gulluni persisted and picked up important endorsements throughout the race - from former Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett to the Massachusetts State Police and a wide range of labor unions.

Mastroianni was appointed by the U.S. Senate as a federal judge near the end of his first term, leaving the seat open for only the fourth time in 60 years.